Seneca Valley High School students Tanner Quiggle, Andrew Lingenfelter, Emerson Maloney and Cole Davis show off their winning entry in the Chain Reaction Contraption Engineering Competition at the Carnegie Science Center. The Seneca Valley team won first place.

JACKSON TWP — A team comprised of Seneca Valley students recently took first place in an engineering competition at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The Seneca Valley students beat out teams from 43 other schools in the tri-state area by building a Rube Goldberg-like machine, or a contraption that performs a relatively simple task in a complex and overengineered fashion. Westinghouse Electric sponsored the Chain Reaction Contraption Engineering Competition. The Seneca team, made up of students from the intermediate high school, designed a device to mimic the history of science. The machine started with popping a “Big Bang” balloon that released marbles meant to represent the planets. The process ends with a black hole funneling the planets into a container, which symbolized the end of the universe. The machine completed four clean runs and ensured victory for the Seneca students. The team took home the first place trophy, gift cards, autographed Steelers footballs and board games. The students also were awarded a free field trip to the Carnegie Science Center. The winning team included students Cole Davis, Mitch Lachat, Andrew Lingenfelter, Emerson Maloney, Cory Nagel, Tanner Quiggle, Kobie Rankin and Jeff Rodrigues.